Hooters Ball Girl Battles Darin Ruf for Final Outfield Spot

Let’s just say that the Hooters ball girls in Clearwater aren’t there for their love gloves.

Earlier this spring, one leggy blonde – who Darren Daulton would have just loved – shocked the world by snagging a (fair) grounder down the left field line… but today, her right field counterpart wasn’t so lucky. She saw two balls go through her wickets (…) during the bottom of the third… and then she heard it from the crowd. Of course, Darin Ruf is throwing balls over the outfield fence. So this actually isn't the worst fielding fans have seen at Phillies games this week.

I am going to respond to this raltanoily. I agree that Ruf has adjusted to a new level of performance (we will get to what it is in a minute), I am guessing the bat change allowed his swing to work better mechanically, it can’t be just bat weight and feel to start something like this, it has to mechanical change. Baseball is a game of adjustments and the reason why this streak while incredible is less telling then if he did this over a year and why it isn’t a new level is that there haven’t been any adjustments made against him yet. The only thing pitchers have done is just not pitch to him, they will find a flaw in him and they will exploit it (this isn’t pessimistic this is baseball), if he is great he will adapt and force them to change, if he does not, he will fail. He cannot sustain this, but we won’t know what he is until adjustments are made against him, this will happen at the majors and is why I favor bringing him up when I didn’t before. His age and athleticism are hindrances here, it will be harder for him to adjub50st, just look everyone’s favorite whipping boy Ryan Howard. Ruf is worse than he is showing right now, the question is how much?There is only one player I have not seen struggle yet at the major league level and that is Mike Trout and you have to figure it is only a matter of time till they figure out how to get him out and then he will have to adjust.Again, not arguing something has changed with Ruf (likely his swing) to make us reexamine him, but this isn’t his new level, it is something less than this, but higher than what he was before.

LarryM: I am officially cnlailg a truce . After reading your last post, I am 100% CERTAIN that you have me confused with someone else. I have NEVER, nor would I ever, post anything about anybody that was considered vile or a personal attack. And, I have no doubt whatsoever that I have not posted anything about Jimmy Rollins that would be considered a personal attack on him. While it is a waste of time to review prior posts to find proof, if you did review the last week or so, you will see that I have written nothing that would justify your responses to me. I can assure you that my comments about Rollins were limited to my opinion that he has underperformed the past few years, at a time when I feel he should have blossomed. The worst comment I made about him was that I think he can be a selfish player, that’s it. Of course, you have every right to disagree, and I respect that right. However, your first reply to me when you referred to me as a racist, I could not understand for the life of me how you arrived at that opinion based on my post. I am convinced, that you must h5a8ave replied to me thinking I wrote something that I did not. Also, you refer to WIP, I have never written a word about WIP. I never understood your reference to WIP in your replies to me. Let’s put this behind us. This is clearly a case of mistaken Identity that got out of hand. I alogize for anything I wrote that I should not have that may have offended you, but I was simply trying to defend myself, as I am not a racist, fat slop, or a WIP fan for that matter. I hope this make some sense to you. Have a good night. Thank you.